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(No Model.)

A. D. SPIER. APPARATUS PORCLEANING SUBMBRGED PARTS OF SHIPS. No. 820,824.

Patented June 28, 1885.

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UNITED STATES ALEXANDER D. sPiEE, E GLASGOW,

PATENT OFFICE.

COUNTY OF LANARK, SCOTLAND, AS-

SIGNOR OF TVVO-TENTHS TO AROHIBALD SCOTT BROWN, OF SAME PLACE, AND DAVID HUNTER, OF TROON, SCOTLAND.

APPARATUS FOR CLEANING SUBMERGED PARTS OF SHIPS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 320,824, dated June 23, 1885.

Application filed July I, 1884. Renewed April 8, 1885. (No model.) Patented in England June 14, 1884, No. 8,972; in France August 9, 1884, No. 163,705, and in Germany August 9. 1884, No. 31,491.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALEXANDER DONALD- SON SPIER, a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, residing at Glasgow, in the county of Lanark, Scotland, have invented new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Cleaning or Scrubbing the Submerged Parts of Ships or Vessels Afloat, (for which I have obtained Letters Patent of Great 19 Britain, hearing date the 14th day of June, 1884, and numbered 8,972,) and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable others skilled in the manufacture or art 15 to which it relates to make and use the same. This invention relates to improvements in apparatus for cleaning, scrubbing, or removing incrustations or marine animal and vegetable matters from the submerged parts of the sides and from the bottoms of ships or vessels afloat.

To provide an apparatus which will thoroughly clean, scrub, or paint that part of the ships bottom contiguous to the keel is the main object of this invention, which principally relates to a jointed or articulated frame, which, instead of being suspended by lines from the end ties,is suspended from eyes or rings formed on or secured to the broad flat member of the frame for the time being uppermost. This arrangement enables the end ties to be terminated flush with or within the said members, instead of projecting beyond or through them,as formerly, and the result is that in working the bottom member gets quite or nearly up to the keel, and consequently the main brush or scrubber acts on and thoroughly. cleans that part of the bottom. In any case, however, there is a narrow strip of the bottom which cannot be reached by the main brush, owing to the bottom member of the jointed frame abutting against the keel and to the space between the brush and the said member. To act on and clean or scrub this said part the broad flat members of the frame are, under this invention, furnished with brushes or scrubbers along their front edges, and with the like object and also to act on and clean the keel itself other brushes or scrubbers are or may be provided at right angles to the supplementary 5o brushes above mentioned.

To insure that the apparatus shall in all cases reach the keel, eyes or rings are or may be made or provided on the back edges of the top and bottom members, or at other convenient parts of the apparatus, and to the eye or ring of the member which is for the time being undermost a line or cord is or may be connected, and from thence passed under the keel and up the other side of the ship or vessel to the deck or other point where it can be hauled on.

On the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of a cleaning or scrubbing apparatus with the improvements constituting 6 this invention shown thereon. Fig. 2 is an elevation looking from the front end of the apparatus. Fig. 3 is an elevation looking from the rear end of the apparatus, and showing an alternative for the supplementary brushes illustrated at Figs. 1 and 2. Fig. 4 is a crosssection, drawn to an enlarged scale, of the alternative scrubbers shown at Fig. 3.

As seen more particularly on Fig. 1, the jointed or articulated frame has its end ties, b, 7 5 and the mid bar or bars, 6, carrying the main brush or scrubber g, terminated flush with or within the outer broad flat surfaces of the top and bottom members, a, instead of, as formerly, projecting bejond the said surfaces, and hav- 8o ing eyes or rings in the projecting parts to connect the suspending-lines c to, these lines being now attached to eyes or rings m, made or fixed in brackets or clamps y, which are secured over the ends of the members a. At the 8 5 outer surface of the said members the brackets or clamps are preferably countersunk flush with the surface, and the stems of the eyes at are preferably as far away from the outer sides of the brackets 01'' clamps as possible, in order 0 that the eyes may not project beyond the outer surfaces of the members a, and so prevent them from abutting closely against the keel in working. Along the front edges of the members a brushes m are arranged; or, instead of brushes, the scrubbers may consist of lengths of hard twisted or plaited rope m, preferably of rectangular section, the said rope being laced to the members a, as indicated at Fig. 4, or otherwise conveniently fastened, or other equivalents for the brushes or rope-scrubbers may be substituted.

The function of the said brush or scrubber is to act on and clean that part of the ships bottom which is not reached by the main brush or scrubber g, and with the like object, and also to act on the keelitself. The outer broad flat sides of the members a of the frame are or may also be similarly provided with brushes, as at n, Figs. 1 and 2, or with scrubbers consisting of lengths of rope, as at 0, Figs. 3 and 4, or with mats or other equivalents of these.

On the back of each of the members a, or at other convenient part of the apparatns-for example, on the back of the center tie or bar, 6, or on the backs of the end ties, b-eyes or rings 19 are fastened or made, and to the eye or ring, which for the time being is undermost, a line or cord, 1", is or may be connected, and from thence led under the keel and passed up the side of the ship opposite to that on which the apparatus is working to the deck or other point where it can be hauled on. In cleaning at or near the stern, in the run of the ship, a line or cord, 3, is connected to the upper eye or ring, the length of the said line or cord from the point on deck or other point where it is secured to the eye being such as to prevent the apparatus from being carried down beneath or round the keel, as it is otherwise liable to be.

It is preferred to work this apparatus by my improved tackle, of which Ihave filed aspecification, and for which I have applied for a patent of even date herewith.

Having now described the invention, what I desire to claim and secure by Letters Patent 1s 1. In apparatus for cleaning or scrubbing the submerged parts of the sides and the bottoms and keels of ships afloat, a jointed frame having brushes or scrubbers on the front edges, or on both the front edges and on the outer fiat sides of its top and bottom members, and rings or eyes at the extremities of the said members, and rings or eyes at the backs of the said members or on the mid or end ties, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. In apparatus for the purpose set forth, the combination of a jointed frame provided with auxiliary brushes or scrubbers and rings 5 5 or eyes, as set forth, with a main. brush or scrubber carried in and by the frame, substantially as described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 17th day of June, 1884.

ALEXR. D. SPIER. [L. s]

\Vitnesses:

GEO. M. CRUIKSHANK,

Fel. Inst. P. A., 135 Buchanan Street, Glasgow.

HUGH DONALD FITZPATRIOK,

Clerk, 135 Buchanan Street, Glasgow. 

